Paint Swatch Art

I am thinking about redecorating my hallway and so have recently been spending time mooching around the paint section of various DIY stores. Luckily, this is one of my favourite places to be (a bit sad, I know). I just love seeing the vast array of colours and shades laid out before me on the colour swatches. The possibilities seem endless; before I know it I’m getting carried away with all sorts of ill-advised colour combinations and have calm down and remind myself that I actually went in looking for a subtle shade of grey!

The other great thing about these colour swatches is that they are free and you can (within reason, I guess) take as many as you like. They are super for making art with and children will no-doubt get just as excited as me by all of the lovely colours. Grab a handful, cut them up into separate squares and ask your child to sort them into piles of reds, blues etc. They will be astonished at how many shades of each colour exist. They can then stick them down in a take on a colour wheel, perhaps going from darkest to lightest shade for older children. Or, maybe they could use them to make a rainbow, thinking about colour order and using a mix of shades. Another idea is to sort them into colour families and then cut them up into smaller pieces to use in a mosaic. Your child could design a tile on a piece of square card and then use these small pieces to decorate. This looks really effective. I also love the idea of asking children to match up painted pegs with various shades (pictured below). This will really get them thinking about the concept of lighter and darker which will help them out massively in other art work.

I’m sure there are many other uses as well, for grown up artists as well as children. I’d love to know if you have used these swatches in art activities in different ways. Please share your thoughts and ideas!